4th in class not good enough for parents: China teen runs away from home

A 14-year-old teen in China ran away from home after his parents criticised him for not living up to their expectations for his school examinations.

The unidentified teen was found by the police on Feb 11, crying on a highway in the south-west of Yunnan province, reported South China Morning Post.

The teen told police officers that he had scored more than 630 out of 700 points in his school’s midterm test, ranking fourth in his class and 20th in his grade.

However, his parents were not satisfied with his results, said the article.

“I had such a good score, but I was still blamed when I got home,” the teen told the police in Mandarin.

The officers contacted his parents and lectured them when they picked up their son from the police station. A video showing the parents being reprimanded by the officers was uploaded on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

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One of the police officers said: “Beating and scolding children doesn’t solve problems.

“He is at an age when teenage rebellion is a big issue. If you don’t treat him fairly now, he might develop bigger problems in the future. You should communicate with him patiently, ditch your stereotypes and become his friends.”

Some online users criticised the parents for being too harsh on their son.

One of them said: “I want to ask what scores they attained when they were in secondary school.”

The parents’ obsession over grades has echoes of jiwa, or the “chicken blood parents” phenomenon, which is gaining popularity in China. Such parents pressure their kids aggressively to ensure their competitiveness in the fierce battle for a place in an elite university.

In February, a father in China was sentenced to 12 years in jail after he accidentally stabbed his 13-year-old son to death for getting low scores in school.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.